Thursday, October 02, 2008

Cookbook Progress- Complete!

The Cookbook for the Jan Norris Cancer Burn and Auction is complete. I sent it off to the printers last night and should expect it back in 10 days!

I ordered enough copies to auction off 20 of them and then kept 5 for me, my daughters and my sister.

Let me share with you the good, the bad and the ugly...

Good: It was exhilarating! Aside from the fact that all money raised goes to the American Cancer Society (I donated my time and the cost of all materials and printing) the entire process was very challenging and ultimately, fulfilling. Last night, I worked feverishly to meet the deadline.

I saw the good in others who went to great lengths to get me recipes, others helped type them up and e-mailed me them (which saved me a bunch of time) and others promoted the cookbook. It was an enriching feeling to work with others with the same goal. I learned some of the "ins" of the publishing and now am motivated to actually write a book!

Bad: Some people promised recipes and kept promising all day yesterday. At first, I held off, still believing that they would come true, but at 7 pm on the day of the deadline, I had to politely tell them to save their recipes for next year.

Ugly: Some people who sent recipes felt this was a chance to advertise for their business. Now, they didn't ask to place an ad (there are no ads) or share expenses, but instead they wrote their recipes in a way that dropped their business name 100 times! I am not kidding. In one 3 paragraph recipe, I had to delete and modify it to actually reflect a recipe and not a press release. Luckily, I only had 3 people who felt it necessary to take a Cancer Fundraiser and attempt to turn it into a "Look at Me" fest.

Lastly, I had many contributors, but I was most shocked at some of the people who didn't contribute. I believe that laziness on their part was the main issue, although I do know some petty people who want no part in things I participate in. Their loss.

This was a really good experience and a very positive thing.

The cookbook is 100 pages, with over 90 recipes (I will have to count the exact number).

When I started, my hope was for 50 recipes!

What I learned on a "charity cookbook":

Make an earlier due date for recipe submission.

Delegate tasks - have someone type up recipes, someone design the cover, someone promote, someone beg for recipes, someone look to fund the project through ads, donations, sponsors, etc. This would have come in handy. Of course, being a project based on volunteers, you want to be careful with your selection of delegates...